Richard A. Kirk | Visual Artist | Author
"there is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion" Sir Frances Bacon, Of Beauty, Essays" 1625
The Other Earth, 2023, ink on paper, 14” x 18” Earlier this year I was honored to get this special commission from a long time collector and friend, which I can now show you in its entirety. The theme of the piece is that of father and son—exploring your imagination and sharing the journey with... Continue Reading →
A couple of years ago, I was approached by Earthling Publications to illustrate a very limited collector's edition of Dune. In the months that followed—of course, I said yes—I created 12 large graphite and carbon pencil drawings for the interior and a wraparound cover in oils. Dune was a dream gig for me. I grew... Continue Reading →
For highly rendered ink drawings I like to start with a detailed graphite line drawing. This piece started life as a proposed book illustration. If you look carefully, you can see the vertical line that marks the edge of the original drawing. When the editor selected another piece in its place, I finished the drawing... Continue Reading →
Manuscript with Crow Skull A crow skull makes a poor paperweight, but casts a nice shadow. This is the manuscript of a novel I am currently working on—already woefully out of date as I’m in the process of a pretty major re-write (thanks to some on-point observations from my literary agent). I revise digitally using... Continue Reading →
A few years ago, I had to give up painting in oil because the paints triggered ocular migraines. Every painting session ended with me lying on the couch feeling like I was on a bad acid trip. Not fun. Then I learned about M. Graham odourless paints. These paints are a game changer for me... Continue Reading →
My Workspace For my first post of 2023 (March, I know) I thought I would show you where I spend most of my time. Since the autumn of 2020 I’ve been working to complete a number of projects that will be announced over the coming weeks or months. I completed 3 large drawings for one... Continue Reading →
A couple of years ago I drew an imaginary plant in silverpoint, which at the time I thought of as a the first in a series of drawings to be called Mysterious Garden. Well, I finally got back to that project last week and drew 2 more pieces in the series. I'm posting all 3... Continue Reading →
Birdseye, 2022, ink on paper, 17" x 14" Tonight, I am sharing a newly completed personal piece called Birdseye. I worked on it, off and on, over the summer, in between some book illustration projects and revisions to my novel in progress. Earlier this week, I turned in the latter to my literary agent, so... Continue Reading →
Under drawing for We Shall be Near You Today I am sharing the graphite under-drawing for a new piece called We Shall be Near You. I borrowed the title from a poem by Yeats. In the context of this piece, the words refer to the idea of friendship and loyalty, the nearness of others. I’m... Continue Reading →
There’s an old T.Rex song called Summer Deep. The first verse goes like this… Summer deep is in the hills againHis lady is a lionessWinds of birds blow through the fields againInvaders from the true worlds Summer ends on September 22, so I suppose we are in Summer Deep now. I spent most of this... Continue Reading →
